American Crocodile Education Sanctuary

Help Take a Bite Out of Extinction!

Belize, Latin Amer

This morning we had 16 baby crocs hatch in our bathtub. These crocs were rescued from nests raided by raccoons at the sewage plant. First, due to the fact of the contaminated waters that their parents are forced to live in, due to the pressures of development, at the sewage plant, they are not very healthy. Also, statistics prove the less than 1% of hatchling crocs survive to reach sexual maturity. While people may think there is an abundance of crocs on the island, this is not so. Their numbers are steadily decreasing. We all know the reasons. Anyways, it will take a whole year before we can even determine if any of the these newly hatched crocs in captivity will even have a chance of survival due to their condition. We will get opposition for trying to save these babies. Even the best intentions get opposition. The thing is as we take large crocs out of the environment and into captivity because they are problematic, we need to replace them with smaller ones to keep the population self sustainable and healthy. As apex predators the crocs keep even the fish populations, such as snapper, healthy by feeding on the sick and weak. They play a vital roll in keeping the ecosystem in balance.